Oct 3, 2012 Economic Development and Jobs, Small Businesses

BECKLEY, W.Va. – Underscoring the value of investing in small business development to create new economy jobs, U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) Wednesday announced federal funding to improve the success rate for technology based entrepreneurial business development in West Virginia.

“Investing in home grown entrepreneurial spirit not only makes a lot of sense, it makes a lot of dollars as well,” said Rahall. “As technology advances in all walks of our lives, perhaps now more than ever, technology-based businesses can help deliver new job opportunities both now and into the future.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development has approved a Rural Business Opportunity Grant of $50,000 for the Center for Applied Research Technology in Bluefield to provide technical assistance which will improve the success rate for technology based entrepreneurial business development in West Virginia.

Rahall has actively supported entrepreneurship and small business development in southern West Virginia.  He has cosponsored federal legislation to provide small business tax credits to help biotechnology companies raise capital.  He also has supported Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) programs to increase the participation of small businesses in federally funded research and development, as well as being supportive of local West Virginia institutions like Marshall University and its medical and forensic research programs.

Morgantown, WV – September 27, 2012: State Director Bobby Lewis announced that USDA Rural Development approved a Rural Business Opportunity Grant of $50,000 for the Center for Applied Research Technology, Mercer County, WV.

Rural Development funds will be used to provide technical assistance which will improve the success rate for technology-based entrepreneurial business development in West Virginia.

Rural Development serves as the lead Federal entity for rural development needs and administers program assistance through its housing, business, community and infrastructure programs. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability and where applicable, sex, marital status, familial status, parental status, religion, sexual orientation, genetic information, political beliefs, reprisal, or because all or part of an individual’s income is derived from any public assistance program. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.)

Further information on USDA Rural Development may be obtained by visiting USDA’s web site athttp://www.rurdev.usda.gov. In West Virginia, call 1-800-295-8228 to be put in touch with the appropriate personnel serving your county. Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA’s TARGET Center at 202.720.2600 (voice and TDD)

04 August 2011

NEWTON, MA — MOCA Systems, Inc. (MOCA) has been selected by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Walla Walla District for a $50 million unrestricted (large business) nationwide A-E IDIQ for cost engineering services to all federal agencies.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Walla Walla District is a Center of Expertise for Cost Engineering Services used by all federal government agencies throughout the program lifecycle. Pre-construction and on-site construction mangement services include planning, program management, cost estimating, scheduling, risk management, change order management, claims analysis, forensics and stakeholder coordination.

The MOCA Team includes PRC, Atkins, AECOM, L-3 Stratis and CART as key subcontractor teaming partners.

About MOCA Systems
MOCA Systems, Inc. provides innovative program lifecycle management services to clients around the world using process improvement methods and advanced technology. Established in 1999, MOCA is a nationally recognized firm that has supported the delivery and management of over $30 billion in facility and infrastructure systems.  To learn more about MOCA, please visit www.mocasystems.com.

For Additional Information, Contact Michael Sullivan (617) 581-6622, mss@mocasystems.com

17 September 2010

Funds Will go to Bluefield State College and United Mine Workers of America Career Centers, Inc. for Safety Programs

CHARLESTON, WV — Senators Jay Rockefeller and Carte Goodwin (both D-W.Va.), along with Congressman Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.), today applauded the announcement of $154,000 in funding from the Brookwood-Sago grants program to provide education and training within the mining industry.

“The safety of our West Virginia miners must continue to be monitored and improved – and this funding will go toward state-of-the-art programs that will help keep our miners protected,” said Senator Rockefeller. “One of the best ways we can honor our dedicated miners and their dangerous work is to continue funding programs like these to prevent mine accidents and disasters in the future.”

“Education and training opportunities like these provide our miners with the skills and the knowledge they need to prevent disasters and to make the conditions they work in safer,” said Senator Goodwin. “I am proud to support this announcement, as well as any additional efforts designed to support our coal miners, their families, and our communities.”

“I helped to create this important program to fund training programs that improve safety for our coal miners,” said Rahall. “The UMWA Career Centers have an outstanding record of providing mine safety training to help ensure the well-being of all miners and they are certainly deserving of these funds. Having strong mine safety and health laws on the books has proven critical to saving lives and I will continue to fight to ensure that the Congress does all that it can to keep our miners safe and on the job.”

Grant recipients include:

Bluefield State College (BSC) will receive $61,000 in federal grant funds under the Brookwood-Sago grant program to improve conveyor belt safety training through collaborative web-based tools. This work would create more effective training, improve safety, and enable continual improvement of conveyor belt safety courses.
United Mine Workers of America Career Centers, Inc. will receive $93,000 in federal grant funds under the Brookwood-Sago grant program to develop an interactive computer program to train and prepare miners on escape procedures in underground coal mines.  The training program would require teams to apply critical thinking in their virtual escape from a mine emergency, with teams advancing to the next level of the program based on their responses to each problem.

Background:

The Brookwood-Sago training grants are awarded for a 12-month project performance period, and applicants must be states or nonprofit entities. The grants were named in remembrance of the 13 men who died in two explosions at the Jim Walter Resources #5 mine in Brookwood, Ala. in 2001 and 12 men who died in an explosion at the Sago Mine in Buckhannon, W.Va., in 2006.

The grant program was established through a provision in the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response (MINER) Act of 2006.  The focus of FY 2010’s funded grants will be on training and training materials for mine emergency preparedness and mine emergency prevention for all underground mines.

Rockefeller and Rahall worked to pass the MINER Act in 2006. This year, Rockefeller and Goodwin introduced the Robert C. Byrd Mine and Workplace Safety and Health Act of 2010 in the Senate in response to the Upper Big Branch mine disaster. Rahall is a cosponsor of the House version of this bill.

Further information on the Brookwood-Sago Mine Safety Training Grant Program is available on MSHA’s Web site at http://www.msha.gov.

By Amy Louviere MSHA News Release 16 September 2010

ARLINGTON, VA — The U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration today announced it has awarded $500,000 in grant funds to six organizations that provide education and training within the mining industry. The Brookwood-Sago grants program was established through a provision in the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act of 2006. The focus of fiscal year 2010's grants will be on training and training materials for mine emergency prevention and preparedness for all underground mines.

"Training is one of the most important components for preparing miners, rescue teams and other personnel to respond to mine emergencies," said Joseph A. Main, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health. "These grants provide a valuable opportunity to develop new training tools and techniques that will help ensure miners return home safely after every shift."

Bevill State Community College of Jasper, Ala., will receive $77,000 to develop video training modules for mine emergencies and safety scenarios that can be shown to critical response staff as well as the entire mining workforce. Additionally, the project will produce a training manual for trainees to utilize in their mine operations.

Bluefield State College of Bluefield, W.Va., through its Center for Applied Research and Technology Inc., will receive $61,000 to develop two Web-enabled courses to improve conveyer belt safety training.

The Colorado Department of Natural Resources will receive $57,000 to help improve the level and effectiveness of mine emergency training by networking and sharing mine emergency and MSHA-sponsored mine emergency response development training ideas and innovations with reputable mine rescue and mine emergency training organizations throughout the country.

Colorado School of Mines of Golden, Colo., will receive $80,000 for mine rescue training, including simulated and actual underground rescue exercises, with a focus on effective communications and decision-making.

Pennsylvania State University of State College, Pa., will receive $132,000 to develop, design, implement and evaluate a demonstration emergency prevention training program for supervisors. Training methods will incorporate traditional classroom methods, state-of-the-art video technology, written training materials and Internet-based learning.

United Mine Workers Career Centers Inc. will receive $93,000 to develop an interactive computer program to train and prepare miners on escape procedures in underground coal mines. The training program will require teams to apply critical thinking in their virtual escape from a mine emergency, with teams advancing to the next level of the program based on their responses to each problem.

Training grants are awarded for a 12-month performance period, and applicants must be states or nonprofit entities. The grants were named in remembrance of 13 men who died in two explosions at the Jim Walter Resources Inc. No. 5 Mine in Brookwood, Ala., in 2001, and 12 men who died in an explosion at the Sago Mine in Tallsmanville, W.Va., in 2006.

By Bill Archer Bluefield Daily Telegraph 23 May 2010

BLUEFIELD, WV — Trucks carrying mine rescue teams and their gear rolled into Bluefield early Saturday morning, and came to a stop at the Dickason Hall parking lot on the Bluefield State College campus.

“You can’t get here early enough to beat any of these guys here,” Bruce Mutter said. Mutter is an associate professor of architectural engineering technology at BSC as well as president and chief executive officer of the Center for Applied Research and Technology. “I got here at 5 a.m., but they were already here.”

At 6:45 a.m., before the fourth annual mine rescue competition sponsored by BSC and Welch Post #1, National Mine Rescue Association got started, members of the eight competing teams gathered outside Dickason Hall, set their coffee cups aside, removed their hats and held their own memorial service for their 29 brother coal miners who died in the April 5 explosion at the Upper Big Branch South Mine.

“Thank all of you,” The Reverend Gerald W. “Gerry” Pauley pastor of the Dorothy Assembly of God Church said. “I know most of you were down at Upper Big Branch. It’s because of people like you that events like this are possible. All of the time you spend away from your families at home ... it takes people with a willingness to make a sacrifice and a willingness to participate.”

Although there were about 75-80 mine rescue team members listening to Pauley’s brief service, he didn’t need a public address system to make himself heard. “I thank God for the people of West Virginia and this part of Virginia,” Pauley said. “When somebody is in need, you step up. Each and every one of you who were down on that river... we’re all thankful for you.

“You are our friends and neighbors,” Pauley said. “Coal mining is a difficult job but a good job. It’s a job we can all be proud of.” Pauley worked as a coal miner, but is now a district inspector with the West Virginia Office of Miner Health Safety and Training. His specialty is roof support systems with the District IV Office in Oak Hill. He read the first four verses of Chapter 14 in the Book of John.

“I know there is a God,” Pauley said. “The families and everybody who goes to my church, they’re all thankful for all of your efforts. I don’t care what anybody else says,  the people of this part of the world will stick together in times of trouble. Hopefully, there will never be another explosion like April 5.”

Pauley asked everyone to remove their hats again as he read the names of all 29 coal miners who died in the Upper Big Branch Mine explosion. The members of the mine rescue teams bowed their heads as Pauley read the names. Pauley asked for a moment of silence and then the service ended without additional comments as the eight teams returned to their staging areas to check their gear and prepare for the training problem they were about to solve. Rain that had held off through the morning started falling after the service. The teams didn’t seem to notice the rain as they walked in single-file to BSC’s Higginbotham Sports Complex work the problem.

By Bill Archer Bluefield Daily Telegraph 23 May 2010

BLUEFIELD, WV — There’s no question that the April 5, tragedy at the Upper Big Branch South Mine had an impact on the fourth annual mine rescue team contest at the Bluefield State College campus, but eight mine rescue teams remained focused on the problems and worked through the training exercises.

“We’re going to mine a little coal while you’re getting this little problem worked out,” Milton Smallwood said. Smallwood is a safety instructor with the Welch Regional office of the West Virginia Miners Office of Health Safety and Training. Smallwood said the same thing to each team as they approached the Higginbotham Sports Complex Field in single file to tackle the problem developed by Welch Post #1, National Mine Rescue Association and reviewed by the federal Mine Health and Safety Administration.

“So that others may live. That’s why they do it,” Andrea Horn of Buchanan County, Va., said as she and her daughter, Amanda Horn, sat beneath umbrellas in canvas chairs and watched mine rescue teams working through a roped-off maze of simulated problems. Event organizers from Welch Post #1 and BSC cut the designs in the outfield grass of the June O. Shott Field. Team members tackled the problem wearing fiber-wound oxygen tanks and breathing through masks the whole time.

“These are the guys who, when everyone comes running out, they go in,” Andrea Horn said.

“It’s not much of a spectator sport,” Amanda Horn said. However, she attends mine rescue competitions to show her support for her father, Jackie Horn, a member of Consol Energy’s Buchanan Mine Black Team.

“We all watched what happened at Upper Big Branch,” Andrea Horn said. “Right now, the families at the Buchanan Mine are working on a plan in case something like that ever happens to us. We want to pre-plan what we can do. We don’t want to see anyone standing on the side of a road, not knowing where to go or what to do.”
Horn’s Buchanan Mine Rescue Black Team placed first in the contest with Consol Energy’s Buchanan Mine Rescue Red Team coming in second. A third Buchanan County team, the Jewel Smokeless Mine Rescue Red Team came in third. The other teams that participated included the Pocahontas Coal Company Mine Rescue Team, the International Coal Group Black Team, ICG’s Wolf Run Mine Rescue White Team and the South Pocahontas Mine Rescue Team.

“These guys are the candles in the darkness ... the sentinels of the future of coal mining,” Mike Plumley said. Plumley directed the competition this year. He is a district inspector for District IV, West Virginia Office of Miners Health Safety and Training who specializes in electrical systems.

Plumley pointed out that there is a transition taking place in the mine rescue teams statewide as team members in their mid to late 50s “transition out,” and younger members come in to take their place. A few years ago, the number of mine rescue teams had dropped off to a very few. However, after the Sago Mine disaster on Jan. 2, 2006, new federal regulations have brought an increase in the number of mine rescue teams statewide. At the same time, cooperation between state, federal and local mine rescue teams has improved.

“Several of these teams were at Upper Big Branch,” Plumley said. “It can be difficult to deal with. I tell them to remember what they experienced and saw here, take it back with them to their mines and share it with the miners they work with.”

Plumley said that training competitions like the one in Bluefield on Saturday help the members of rescue teams throughout the region get to know each other so if they’re brought together at a critical time, they will know what to do.

“It’s like a family,” one of the mine inspectors judging the competition said. “These guys are like brothers. You’ll go to situations in West Virginia or Virginia and you’ll see the same people. They want to win, but they also want to train. There are no losers here.”

Welch Post #1 NMRA distributed baseball caps to mine rescue teams who participated. The back of the caps have the message: “In Memory April 5, 2010.”

By Charly Markwart Princeton Times 2 July 2009
 
PRINCETON, WV — For 23 local young ladies, the door to a whole new world was opened last week. 

And, for those participants in Mercer County Schools’ sixth annual Women-Tech Academy, that door might just lead to a career in the field of engineering.

“This camp is to introduce high school girls to the careers that are available in the field, because there is a shortage of young ladies going into engineering,” explained Don Bury, professor of architectural engineering at Bluefield State College, which collaborates with the county school system to coordinate the weeklong day camp. “This allows them to do some research and find out what careers in this field are all about, and to realize that they might have the opportunity to go into those fields.”

The academy, hosted this year June 22-26 at the Mercer County Technical Education Center, has become a popular annual summer educational offering, open to any female student heading into grades nine through 12. Throughout this year’s camp, a variety of hands-on experiments, lecture opportunities and field outings gave participants a rare close-up view into the world of engineering.

“I think the students have had a lot of fun this week doing things they probably wouldn’t have been exposed to otherwise,” said Bury. “We try to pick some activities that are fun but that build some skills at the same time. They’ve been putting things together and understanding the engineering and physics behind these things that we’re doing.”

Those activities included building mechanical robots, designing an aquarium, and constructing water-powered rockets, which were later launched on the Princeton Senior High School football field. 

“The ladies tried to build their rockets to go as high in the air as they could,” said Bury. “It taught them about the physics of pressure and aerodynamics, because they had a lot of design decisions that affected how high their rocket would fly, from the shape of the nose to the amount of water they put in the bottle. Then, we brought them out to the field, pumped them up with a tire pump, let the girls pull the string, let go and see whose went the furthest. We’ve seen them go 60, 80, and even 100 feet up today.”
Michelle Blankenship, who will begin the ninth grade in the fall, listed the bottle rocket experiment as one of her favorites in a week full of educational activities.

“This showed me that building rockets can be really fun,” she said. “We just used this 20 ounce pop bottle, glued wings and a cone on it, and then we got to choose whether we used a parachute model or a ping pong ball. We wanted to see whose would go the highest, and I was really surprised at how high mine flew. I think it was pretty much a success.”

In addition to skill-building experiments, the academy also exposed student participants to the professional side of engineering, with visiting female lecturers from within the field. By sharing their stories of struggle and success, Bury says, those women provided some much-needed inspiration to the young Mercer County students taking part in the camp.

“Statistics have shown that ladies do as well, and in many cases better than guys in science and math, but it’s just one of those things where going into the engineering fields hasn’t been promoted to females as well as it could have been,” he said. “But, the career opportunities in the engineering field are going to continue to go up as the baby boomers retire, and in order to fill that need for engineers in the country, we need to let these young ladies know that they can do this.”

This year’s academy, though, wasn’t all serious, and it wasn’t only about education. Designed to pique female students’ interest in engineering by showing them the exciting and stimulating aspects of the field, the camp consisted of several opportunities for fun, including a week-culminating field trip to the Aquarium of the Smokies, in Gatlinburg, Tenn. 

“I think this whole week has definitely excited the students; you can see the enthusiasm in their eyes just out here launching rockets and with everything else they’ve done,” said the MCTEC’s Linda Cox. “This is inspiring female students to understand what the field of engineering is all about, so, if they liked launching rockets today, they’ll know to look at the field for the future. That’s been the whole goal of the academy for years, to get female students from Mercer County Schools to pursue careers in engineering.”

Bury says that goal has already begun to be seen through to fruition in the relatively short history of the Women-Tech program, which, in addition to the summer academy hosts similar quarterly engineering-related activities for female students.

“The academy has continued to grow; we’re at capacity now and we actually had to turn girls away, this year,” he said. “And, as far as leading female students into careers in engineering, we’ve had three former academy participants come over to BSC and join our engineering program, and there are at least three others who have gone into engineering elsewhere. I think that shows that we are accomplishing our goal with this program.”

And, for the students, the Women-Tech Academy might be achieving an even more important goal than that of bringing women into the field of engineering. That goal, according to PSHS junior Alee Swanner, has to do with self-confidence.

“I was kind of interested in engineering, before, but I really enjoyed this, and it inspired me to be more interested,” she said. “There is just a lack of education to females about getting into engineering, but we are just as capable, if not more, than men. This camp gave us a lot of statistics and numbers about that, and it gave us more ammunition to understand all that we are capable of.”

Posted on www.wvva.com 9 May 2009

BLUEFIELD, WV — Local mine rescue teams competed Saturday in an exercise that could help them save a life in a mine emergency. 

The competition is a training tool to help miners prepare for actual disasters.

The teams map conditions they might encounter inside a mine.

It's a learning tool for exploration and location of missing miners.

Although it's just an exercise, the practices prepares miner for a real emergency.

"This is the ideal situation right here because you are training, you don't really have somebody missing. But if you follow the guidelines put forth by mine rescue, it will make you a safer rescuer in actual disasters." explains Richard Crockett, team problem designer.

Team captain, Leslie Clutter adds, "You can never really get the full concept of what a mine emergency was unless you were in it. But this gives us an idea of things we need to look for and things that we need to do and then more or less, work as a team."
This is a timed training tool.

Ten teams competed from six different coal companies.

The teams are also preparing for a national competition in Tennessee.

Posted on www.wvva.com 6 May 2009

BLUEFIELD, WV —Transition from college life to work life can be a real challenge.
We've all heard the question - "How do you get a job without experience and how do get experience without a job?"

But one local college has found a way to help students gain real world experience while fostering economic development at the same time.

Fenner Dunlop Americas, a world wide conveyor belt manufacture recently partnered with Bluefield State College's Center for Applied Research and Technology to give engineering students access to real world problem solving.

"Our students respond to real projects and this is a real application that really gets them excited about what they are learning in the classroom," says Bruce Mutter, CART President.

Projects like this state of the art belt monitoring system, called the Eagle Eye, requires a vast knowledge of electronics, mechanics, computer science, and mining.

"This system monitors weaknesses in the belt and detects, rips, tears, delays. It can tell the operator when maintenance is needed. It saves a lot of money, because if the belt breaks, you lose all that downtime," says Mutter.

Eagle Eye is a local R and D project with worldwide potential, giving students invaluable experience and the possibility of a new careers.

"This is a golden opportunity for me. I am hoping that this will open the door for possible employment there," says James Craig, an engineering student at BSC.

A win-win partnership with education-led economic development that college officials hope to duplicate with other companies.

The Eagle Eye system was recently featured at the 2009 Las Vegas Coal Show were it generated a lot of interest and more than a dozen orders.